It’s easy to think of the cloud as nothing more than a neat place to store files and share documents, but it actually impacts nearly every aspect of our lives — and to some, our bodies and personal health may depend on it.

Nevro is a prime example: The Menlo Park-based manufacturer produces implantable devices that treat and monitor chronic pain (with an emphasis on the lower back), and collect data about each patient. But all of that information needs to go somewhere, and as you might suspect, Nevro found that the cloud is the best way to collect and manage that data.

Visit The Bridge to learn more about Nevro and how the company is using the cloud to create cost savings and safeguard patient information.

Late last year, we announced the winner of the 2014 VMware Fling Contest — Zachary Widing. He won for his idea to update the Onyx Fling to support the vSphere Web Client. You can read additional details on Zachary’s winning submission here.

We caught up with Zachary to discuss winning the Fling contest. It’s been a busy start to 2015 for Zachary, who joined VMware recently.

Q. What was your reaction to learning your idea won the 2014 VMware Fling contest?

A. I was ecstatic to find out that I had won. While the reward was nice, the fact that my Fling submission would be continued into the vSphere Web Client was “reward” for me enough.

Q. What inspired you to enter the contest?

A. I was inspired to enter the VMware Fling contest because I believe in the idea of open innovation, and that possibly “my” idea could be considered good enough to become reality.

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#MarchMadness is in full swing and we’re not just talking basketball! Several VMware executives are in the running for recognitions from SiliconANGLE (Sanjay Poonen) and CRN (Dave O’Callaghan and Frank Rauch)! See the links below to learn more and vote where applicable.

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Last week, Good Technology issued a news release relating to reputed developments in an infringement lawsuit it filed against AirWatch in Germany last December. VMware’s SVP, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary weighs in with her perspective on the litigation.

When we saw him last, our intrepid engineer could hardly contain his excitement at the arrival of his brand new EVO:RAIL in the mail. Eventually he was able to temper his enthusiasm enough to get down to brass tacks, which is where we find him next. As a colleague soon demonstrates in the video below, sometimes it’s just best to follow the instructions—whether you’re setting up a new piece of furniture or a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance.

If you’re setting up your own EVO:RAIL appliance, take a tip from the video and use the EVO:RAIL checklist, available in the EVO:RAIL User Guide.

Chances are you’ve bought shoes from the Brown Shoe Company — perhaps you’re even wearing one of their products right now. The $2.6 billion global footwear corporation earns a lot of its revenue through online sales, which requires a considerable investment in the cloud to ensure that customer payment data is secure. Watch as Patrick Swackhammer, Lead Systems Engineer for the Brown Shoe Company, explains why his team decided to use VMWare for all of its cloud management needs.

Last October, VMware established a new R&D hub in China with the aim of fostering IT innovation and closer collaboration with the country’s local organizations and institutions. As work at VMware Labs Asia continues to thrive, we wanted to offer an overview of the types of projects that will be hosted there, as well as some of the reasons VMware chose to expand its footprint in China.

VMware Labs Asia adds to VMware’s already robust presence in China, which includes a global R&D center. First and foremost, the new lab will serve to spur collaboration between VMware and various local bodies in an effort to leverage the unique market opportunities for virtualization technology in the country.

Markets such as mobile are booming, but many aspects of IT infrastructure still lag behind other developed nations. This is a challenge that VMware is uniquely suited to tackle.

“For a lot of customers in China—whether enterprise, industrial, telco, etc.— VMware is in a very unique position to become the most attractive technology partner,” said Dr. Ying Li, managing director, VMware Labs Asia. “Most customers understand that Unix and mainframe are not going to get them to the next generation of IT. They get the message—they need to transform IT infrastructure—and they’re actively looking for input to help them transform their data center.”

Last week, Good Technology issued a news release relating to reputed developments in an infringement lawsuit it filed against AirWatch in Germany last December. In this release, Good Technology suggests AirWatch’s products have been found to infringe Good Technology’s patents and that an injunction would soon be issued against AirWatch. Nothing could be further from the truth. This lawsuit is only in the very early stages, there have been no substantive rulings in the case, and there has not been a finding that AirWatch’s products infringe any Good Technology patent. Our AirWatch business is experiencing rapid growth and remains fully open for business in Germany, across Europe, and around the world.

In this German lawsuit, Good Technology also brought claims against one of AirWatch’s numerous German resellers in an effort to obtain a procedural advantage in the dispute. But there was no substantive basis for including this reseller – Envision, because it has not had any sales for AirWatch. To avoid the burdens associated with such frivolous litigation, Envision used a procedural tool in the German court to extract itself from the lawsuit without requiring any merits rulings from the German court.

VMware and AirWatch believe Good Technology’s infringement claims lack merit. We also believe Good Technology’s patents are invalid and AirWatch will be filing nullity actions in Germany to invalidate those patents.